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A Ukrainian cargo plane parked near an explosives-laden drone found at Germany's Leipzig/Halle airport was carrying military ammunition transported from France and likely intended for "onward transport," German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported Thursday, citing a confidential police report.
The report, also carried by German broadcasters NDR and WDR, said the finding has not been confirmed by authorities.
It follows an overnight security scare Tuesday in which police found an explosive-laden drone near a Ukrainian plane and a separate cargo aircraft collided with an unknown flying object nearby before landing safely.
Forensic investigators found that the drone was fitted with high-grade military explosives, according to the joint report from SZ, NDR, and WDR.
The findings could raise the stakes in a widening counterterrorism investigation into the incident at an airport that the German government has designated as critical infrastructure and that serves as a major cargo and military logistics hub.
According to the SZ, NDR, and WDR reports, airport staff first noticed the drone around 11:42 p.m. Tuesday, hovering close to the ground between two Antonov cargo planes operated by Ukraine's state-owned Antonov Airlines.
The drone then made contact with an airport employee before coming to rest on the ground, the report said, citing an official account. A drone-detection sensor system at the airport had not detected the object beforehand, according to the report.
Explosives specialists from the Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) removed the detonator from the drone to allow further examination.
A roughly fist-sized package of explosives was attached to the device, and repeated testing indicated it was likely Semtex, an explosive used by both militaries and industry, according to the report.
German police first reported Wednesday morning that a "security-related incident" had temporarily halted flights to the airport, which also serves as a major hub for logistics company DHL.
All flights were diverted for several hours from around midnight as police deployed a bomb-disposal robot to remove the detonator from the explosive attached to the drone found on the tarmac, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Shortly before midnight, an unidentified flying object was sighted near Leipzig-Halle Airport, prompting the diversion of several aircraft, including a passenger plane, to other airports," police said.
"In addition, an object was detected near the southern runway, which was initially examined by the federal police, a process that involved the deployment of an explosives disposal robot," police noted.
Police later confirmed that a police unit using a robot had "removed the detonator from the explosive attachment."
Video footage from a local news agency showed the bomb-disposal robot near an Antonov plane painted with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, with the words "Be Brave Like Kherson" written on the side, a reference to a Ukrainian region battered by Russian strikes.
German newspaper Bild first reported that a DHL cargo plane aborted its landing after the alarm was raised, then collided with an unknown object in mid-air about 6 kilometers (4 miles) away at an altitude of 400 meters.
Police confirmed that "a suspected second unidentified flying object collided with a cargo aircraft" and that "minor damage to the aircraft was discovered after it landed in Hanover."
Reuters reported that the cargo jet was performing a go-around due to the closure of one of the airport's runways when it struck the unidentified object.
It was lightly damaged and eventually landed in Hanover, according to Reuters. German authorities said Thursday they were continuing to search for debris from the object.
Regular traffic at Leipzig airport resumed in the early hours of Wednesday, though only on the northern runway, while investigators examined the southern runway.
A spokesperson for Leipzig/Halle Airport, which is also used by companies including Lufthansa Cargo and Amazon.com, said Thursday that operations had returned to normal and no additional security measures had been implemented, Reuters reported.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the incident represents "a new level of danger," following previous sightings of drones believed to be on surveillance missions or aimed at sowing fear.
"We are dealing here with a professional hybrid threat scenario," Dobrindt told journalists at the airport, adding that the incident and the technology involved did not point to "an amateurish approach."
He said the drone was likely modified by the perpetrators to specifically evade defense systems.
"All the speculation that is currently going on about the explosives, the construction, the question of the drone, the origin and, of course, who is behind it, is now part of the investigation," Dobrindt said.
Dobrindt said Germany is engaged in an ongoing battle against hybrid threats, calling it "a competition ... which may also include foreign powers. This will be part of the investigations."
Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, directly blamed Moscow.
"Who else could it be but Russia?" he said on Welt TV. Authorities have said the investigation is ongoing, and Moscow had made no comment as of the report.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a German lawmaker and member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, also blamed Russia directly for the incidents.
Germany and other European countries have repeatedly observed drones flying over sensitive sites such as airports, military bases, and industrial plants.
Authorities in Germany, one of Ukraine's biggest military supporters, have said they suspect Russia of orchestrating many of the incidents as part of a campaign of sabotage, espionage, and disinformation.
Russia has denied being behind any such incidents.
In July 2024, a parcel burst into flames on the ground at Leipzig Airport before it could be loaded onto a DHL cargo plane, part of what security services treated as a suspected Moscow-linked arson sabotage plot.
Last year, a Chinese national was convicted of passing information about flight schedules and cargo movements at Leipzig-Halle Airport to a man spying for Beijing.
Makeiev pointed to the 2024 Leipzig parcel incident on Wednesday. "Russia has long been waging this hybrid war," he said, adding, "Yet the word 'hybrid' somehow downplays the fact that Russia is waging war not only against Ukraine but also against Europe."
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